PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 315 



A REPETITION OF HISTORY. 



But three centuries ago all of New England, the great Middle States, the 

 northern lake region, the Atlantic and Gulf States, in short, every portion of the 

 United States east and south of the prairies, were as densely covered with prim- 

 eval forests as is the Coast Range of the Pacific at present 



In the Rocky Mountains were magnificent forests, while the Pacific Coast 

 contained vastly more than it has to-day. 



Almost the entire forest region east of the Continental Divide has dis- 

 appeared. That of the Southern States is going rapidly, and can not last beyond 

 two decades, or to the close of this century's first quarter. 



Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, formerly covered with immense oak, walnut, 

 poplar and other timber trees, might now well be called prairie States. 



New England's abandoned farms, where once the white pine abode, were 

 cleared for farming, which, becoming unprofitable, have been abandoned, to grow 

 up in brush and trees of slight value, bringing no adequate returns to the common- 

 wealth and are of little profit to their owners. 



The great manufactories of wood in New England were forced to remove to 

 Indiana and other timbered States half a century ago. 



Thirty years ago it was affirmed, without contradiction, that the hardwood 

 forests of Indiana could never be exhausted. Manufacturers of wagons, carriages, 

 furniture, building lumber, and innumerable sawmills sprang into existence 

 throughout the State. To-day the few factories which remain procure their wood 

 from other States far distant. There are no forests in Indiana to-day. 



Thirty years ago the white pine covered Michigan and Wisconsin so densely 

 that is was considered inexhaustible. To-day it is gone, and but a very moderate 

 quantity of hard wood remains. Sawmills of great capacity were busy night 

 and day. The timber could not be'removed with sufficient rapidity. Millionaires 

 were made in this speedy destruction of Michigan forests; but what are any of 

 them doing to aid the timber-impoverished State in a restoration of her wasted 

 forests? Can a millionaire of Michigan reply? 



The mills have gone, their owners seeking other forests to conquer in the 

 South and the West. 



Grand Rapids manufactories now transport their lumber for a thousand 

 miles from the small forest areas remaining in the South. 



The Southern States have been more backward in clearing away their timber 

 simply because the means of transportation has been insufficient to facilitate its 

 more rapid removal. 



